Is a Gun that Shoots Lightning Practical?

[sniper9474]

if it was made so that it would hit what you were aiming for, then it would be extremly practical, but only really as a mounted weapon where it can run off a steady power supply, but as a hand help weapon it would need to much power to be practical.

It would also be EPIC.

 

[Captain Bobbossa]

I would take an average gun before some mumbo-jumbo lighting gun that doesnt work in the rain.

It would acctually work better in the rain...

 

[Ekonk]

Lightning is pretty devastating. Not only would you be electrocuted, the entire area around you would be ravaged as well.

So I say, yes.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

it could be practical if you had a car that runs on lightning yes...

 

[CaptainCrunch]

The amount of energy required to create the static / electrical potential to kill a person would be better used making a projectile impart more energy on a target. Let's just get the railgun / laser rifle thing going before we start on the lightning guns.

 

[Captain Bobbossa]

Well, if it also shot shurikens...

...and had tits and was on fire...

...it wouldn't matter if it was practical or not.

I believe you need to lower your Yahtzee-Quoting percentage.

Sorry to post off topic here, but if he had quoted any other comedy show in context would you have called him out on it?

OT: I'm no expert here, but where does the supply of electricity coming from?

I 'called him out' on it, as you put it, because Yahtzee is hideously overquoted on the Escapist.

Yes Yahtzee is over quoted and just generally passing of quotes as your own generally sucks aswell however YOU need to CHECK your science. The object lightning hits doesn't have to be metal. E lectricity just takes the route with least resistance or with the biggest potential differance blah blah blah ..... anyway point is it would most likely hit the closest thing not the most conductive depending on where everything is and what they are made off.

 

[TimeLord]

The amount of energy required to create the static / electrical potential to kill a person would be better used making a projectile impart more energy on a target. Let's just get the railgun / laser rifle thing going before we start on the lightning guns.

We could just end up with something in between.

Like a Ghostbusters Proton Pack
[sub]I want one [/sub]

 

[LostTimeLady]

Wouldn't every enemy need to be an oxidizing agent?

Excellent scientific reasoning, except I suspect that the heat generated would cause pretty nasty burning, like with a proper lightening strike regardless of whether it was an oxidising agent or not.
I don't think it would be practical since those machines that can create lightening strikes are the size of houses and require a whole lot of electricity and computers just for one strike.
That aside, it would be a pretty cool thing though.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Well, if it also shot shurikens...

...and had tits and was on fire...

...it wouldn't matter if it was practical or not.

I believe you need to lower your Yahtzee-Quoting percentage.

Sorry to post off topic here, but if he had quoted any other comedy show in context would you have called him out on it?

OT: I'm no expert here, but where does the supply of electricity coming from?

I 'called him out' on it, as you put it, because Yahtzee is hideously overquoted on the Escapist.

Yes Yahtzee is over quoted and just generally passing of quotes as your own generally sucks aswell however YOU need to CHECK your science. The object lightning hits doesn't have to be metal. E lectricity just takes the route with least resistance or with the biggest potential differance blah blah blah ..... anyway point is it would most likely hit the closest thing not the most conductive depending on where everything is and what they are made off.

I wasn't saying it HAS to be metal. I'm not an idiot. It's just that given the choice between, say, a shiny metal car, and a fleshbag human being, it will probably jump to the car rather than the person.

 

[Ezphares]

Not under water.

 

[Player 2]

It would be practical in war. Imagine, a tank is driving or a car and bam, you shot it with lightning.

...and bam, nothing happens because a car acts as a Faraday cage when hit by lightning. The bodywork might get a bit melted but the people inside would be fine.

 

[vasudean]

Only if you are the only one on your side, otherwise with the fact of how lightning behaves, it'll cause all sorts of friendly fire.

 

[DarkPanda XIII]

Nope, not at all..

But the guns that can shoot Shurikens and lightning, now that is logical..and badass >:3

 

[RabidusUnus]

If it was wet it'd just arc all over itself and fry you, and explode too.
If there was any metal closer to you than your target, it'd arc onto the metal.
If the ground was wet and you werent wearing rubber soled shoes, you can kiss your ass goodbye while in midair from the electricity launching you.
But if it didnt have those problems, it'd BADASS.

 

[thedailylunatic]

As said by others, if it was JUST lightning then definitely not. However, I've heard a certain flavor of plasma cannon described in a way that pretty much sounds like it would look like a lightning gun.

 

[Captain Bobbossa]

Well, if it also shot shurikens...

...and had tits and was on fire...

...it wouldn't matter if it was practical or not.

I believe you need to lower your Yahtzee-Quoting percentage.


No, impractical. Any metallic object would instantly attract the electrons in the lightning-strike, meaning that in order for it to be effective you'd need to be in an empty room against an enemy covered in teaspoons.

You pretty much did say that it has to be. ANY metalic object would INSTANTLY attract the electrons.........

Anyway Ive just remembered how lightning works. No the object's material means nothing (well something but not in the way you think) lightning is caused by the clouds rubbing against each other (a shit load) then the clouds become either negattivly charged or positivly charged (it doesnt really matter which it just means that lightning sometimes goes up). So bassically one side (the sides being the sky and the earth) has shit loads of electrons thus negative or fuck all electrons thus positive and then the other side is just about average. This causes the electorns to jump from negative to positive making a huge STATIC shock and this is the lightning bolt. It's the same as rubbing a balloon agains your hair and then sticking it to stuff, it's just losing/gaining electrons. But do the things you stick it to have to be metal? no... is your hair metal (as in tin, copper etc. not slayer)? I doubt it.

My point being is that the object that is most likely to be hit is the most positivly chaged object in the near vacinity but even then it would have to be hugely positive to make any differance at all.

 

[himemiya1650]

Probably, unless you tried to kill a tesla trooper

 

[Deef]

No, but it sure is badass.

 

[snow]

They already have something like this in real life... I've watched one of those stupid discovery channel weapon shows where the guy constantly strives on making EVERYTHING sound REALLY COOL, with his DEEP MANLY AWESOME MAN VOICE OF DOOM...

*cough*

Well, pretty much some dude invented the ability to recreate the affects of a lightning bolt and was able to make a gun like mechanism that shot the lightning out at an AWESOME SUPER 6-9 INCHES!!!

Instead of working on making it more useful, they decided to turn the gun into a brief case... (yes a brief case...) and used it in a simulation where the Feds would block off 2 doors, and the terrorists, after realizing that shit has hit the fan decide to bolt... 1 goes through a door that was being watched by a fed.. Another runs through an open door that had the SUPER AWESOME ZAPPY BRIEFCASE next to it and falls to the ground in a fashion that Leonardo Decaprio would even question...

Of course they then show those fake interviews where the head officer of the swat team sings praises to the zappy-case and then the host talks in his awesome manly awesome voice for like another 5 minutes until they move onto their next innovative idea... The I-shit!! A toilet that you can Twitter on while you do your business!!! *cough* sorry got ahead of myself there..